In reassessing Kennedy’s policies, context is everything

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Jeff Jacoby’s attempt to cherry-pick JFK’s policies to claim that he would be a conservative favorite today is laughable (“Would Democrats embrace JFK now?” Op-ed, Oct. 20). One need only consider President Kennedy’s unprecedented use of federal intervention to fight the then-segregationist policies in what are today’s GOP strongholds to predict where he might stand, for example, in the current immigration fight.

Context is everything, and the United States of today is very different from the Cold War environment in which JFK took office. In an era when Pope Francis can recognize the humanity of gay people, I have no doubt that Kennedy’s policies would be wholly consistent with today’s Democratic Party were we fortunate enough to have him among us.